IP: Re: Hell of a way to run a railroad

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 13:34:38 -0400
From: Richard Fritzson <fritzson () meta4inc com>
Organization: Meta4, Inc.
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.0b5 [en] (WinNT; I)
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Subject: Re: IP: Hell of a way to run a railroad


> No announcement . I asked the conductor and he shrugged and seemed to
say "what can you expect".


This attitude has been routine on eastern trains outside of the NE
corridor, such as the train which goes to Buffalo and Chicago, and has
only recently become more common on it. Though there are still
exceptional individuals on the trains who will go out of their way for
you.


One thing that happened last year is that NJ Transit began paying Amtrak
a substantial premium each month when Amtrak didn't make NJ Transit
late. (Amtrak handles the scheduling of all trains on the rail.) All of
a sudden, usually reliable Amtrak trains were now starting to come in
late as they made way for some of the NJ Transit trains. I don't know if
this is still going on; perhaps the deal has been extended to other
commuter rails.


However, I ride between Paoli and NYC frequently. I only rarely use the
Metroliner, but the trip is still under two hours. It is frequently
right on schedule and delays are usually under fifteen minutes. Overall,
there is no better way to do it.


    Rich Fritzson